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Please Don’t Let Yar’Adua Fail as President By Zents Kunle Sowunmi
I started using recommended eyeglasses in August 1975, by that time, I had an option to go on medication to improve my eyes sight but it was fashionable for guys of my age to use glasses, it was difficult for my parent to persuade me to change my mind and I have been stocked with it ever since despite all the medical improvement towards lacer eyes surgery. I have never ventured beyond the eye glasses but what has this got to do with Nigeria President Musa Yar’Adua the master servant theorist and the captain of Nigeria ship after Aremu the former mustached General left the saddle of Nigeria affairs in May 2007 for the brother of his late deputy in his first coming as military ruler of Nigeria in the seventies?
President Musa Yar’Adua probably the only leader in the world with apostrophe in his last name, the first university graduate to head Nigeria affairs in the last 47 years, a former lecturer in the heart of Northern Nigeria best educational set up, the man who introduced Sharia in Kastina state, a soft talker, a powerful political associate of Mallam Aminu Kano who loved the Talakawas the poor in the North in the sixties and seventies and presently a man whose door is opened to all governors corrupt and clean
I thought Nigerians love football but President Musa Yar’Adua promised to play squash with anybody who talked about his kidney problem and a man his ex wife revealed his only weakness as a plate of salad the details goes beyond these level. The President promised to fight corruption with all his energy better than Baba Iyabo the improved old student at Asero Abeokuta, he promised to release Lagos State fund seized by Aremu which he did and infact took the Lagos State Governor on a USA trip to demonstrate his love for Lagos State, he promised to make Nigeria proud and beyond this he appears to be a complete gentleman, level headed and a pride to Nigeria academic world as against those crude and unpolished leaders we had since independence.
The President believes he can change Nigeria with a policy of servant master relationship thing that respect the rule of law, and which allow Attorney General and the Finance Minister to dictate how criminals can be prosecuted when in fact the AG was formerly legal advisers to most of the criminals under the watchful eyes of EFCC, the president is listening to NBA President Olisa Agbakoba for advise when some of the former clients of the NBA president were in fact in the gallows of EFCC. This listening president listened to his Finance Minister a former deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to cancel the new Naira policy that would have kept Nigeria official currency at almost the same level with Dollars and probably turn Nigeria currency as the Measure of account and store of value for West African currency, this listening presidency removed the most important two people CBN governor Professor Soludo and EFCC from Economic Council in his wisdom or otherwise for a reason better known to himself and his Finance Minister and Attorney General all in a period of 100 days in Office.
The President listened to those who did not demonstrate or with proven record towards friends of economic reforms of Nigeria which the former President Aremu Obasanjo despite his good intention as president for 8 years was overwhelmed with his desire to frustrate former Vice President Abubakar Atiku from succeeding him. OBJ failed to protect constitutionally the entire legal framework that would have enshrined a lasting legacy towards a strong, lasting democracy and economic freedom for a country that can compete head to head with United State of America in all fields.
Nigerians in any part of the world must rise up and should not let Yar’Adua fail as captain of Nigeria ship, because to fail will set us back another 20 years like it did in 1979. When General Obasanjo left 5.5 billion dollars in the coffer of Nigeria foreign reserves in 1979 after years of low profiles with all the benefits of student cut off, President Sheu Shagari just like now went about spending and borrowing and his boys were stealing from left to right, buying Aircrafts and printing Champaign in their names like now while the president was praying like mantis all as revealed during the Buhari Probe on Shagari government before Babangida finally finished Nigeria economy with the SAP (Structural Adjustment Policy) of 1986
President Musa Yar’Adua must be freed from the bondage of his Attorney General who should be replaced now not tomorrow but now, his myopic Finance Minister who believe we should go about borrowing must be sent back to his funny economic school for re-orientations, you don’t borrow when you are making money infact you consolidate, the economic council must be reconstituted to included the Governor of Central bank not just as member but as chairman and the watchful eyes of EFCC.
Our reforms must include changing Nigeria to two party system, with rooms for independent candidates, this will be very easy to manage and the only reason MKO Abiola presidential election in 1993 was free and fair. Nigeria must use all tools of democracy to succeed, it must have State, City and Local police along Federal Police which will only handle special cases, lack of police at local and cities level does not make the jobs of the elected official easy. This will be the only way to implement laws passed by the local government and states which is not the case now, Nigeria must be bold to introduce social security number for all Nigerians and finally pay Nigerian workers per hours for productivity and time management. Anything short of implementing these is like not understanding the problem ahead.
Finally, using my glasses to gaze into the future of this presidency I could see his talk of Master servant “thing” like that of Ibrahim Waziri “ Politics without bitterness” slogan of the seventies, and the carefree attitude of President Shagari towards his associates and callousness of Babangida years of insincerity in the areas of borrowing and corruptions. To all lovers of Nigeria let us make this presidency do the right thing at every point, everyday, every month, the President must wake up and should never allow the circumstance of his ascendancy hunt him from performance because to fail will not only be a disaster for Yar’Adua and Obasanjo for making the wrong choice again after that of 1979 but to every 140 millions Nigeria home and abroad.
Kunle I SowunmiDallas Texas 10/10/07 |